By Viktor Gojdka and
Claus Hulverscheidt, Frankfurt, Berlin
Sometimes, very rarely of course, such a new Corona mutant can also be a political godsend. Officially, Joe Biden is of course alien to this kind of cynicism, but secretly the thought may have flashed through him that the Omikron variant would come at exactly the right time. Every extension of the pandemic harbors dangers for economic development. Above all, however, the new virus version has in the past few days caused exactly the crash in the price of crude oil that the US president had longed for but had not yet brought about. On Thursday, a barrel, that is 159 liters, of the WTI variety cost only a good 65 dollars at times, 18 percent less than a week ago. Compared to the annual high, the decrease was as much as 23 percent.